An easy summertime dessert which uses canned pie filling. Cherry Cake with a Pecan Crumble Topping comes together very quickly, and is a perfectly rustic dessert with very little effort. Break out the vanilla ice cream to make this cake extra special!
Just recently, I posted a recipe to Lord Byron’s Kitchen for my Quick and Easy Cherry Pie Filling. I had so much of it left, I needed to find ways to use it up. One of my all time favourite types of dessert is a coffee cake, so I wanted to mimic that. The pecan crumble topping helped resemble a classic coffee cake without the coffee flavour.
Cherry cake, especially the black forest type, or cherry pie, has to be close to everyone’s favourite type of dessert. I think anything dessert-wise with cherries as the star is the ultimate early summer dessert. And, if you already have cherry pie filling on hand, you can use it up in various ways, like this Cherry Cake with a Pecan Crumble Topping, for example.
Cakes with crumble toppings, which are often referred to as coffee cakes, are meant to be easy and inexpensive. I like to call them non-pretentious cakes, because they don’t require any fussing around at all. The beauty of a cake like this Cherry Cake with a Pecan Crumble Topping is that you don’t need any cake decorating skills at all. And, sometimes, Dear Reader, I really don’t have the time nor the energy to make frosting and dig out my piping bags.
With this particular cake, you basically whip up the cake layer and then spoon the cherry pie filling over the top. Next, sprinkle over the crumb topping and bake. It’s really that easy. Oh, and if cherry is not your thing, you can use any pie filling. Try it with blueberry or apple!
If you are making this cake with apple pie filling, add a little bit of cinnamon to the cake batter, before you pile on the apple pie filling. And, if you’re making this cake with blueberry pie filling, try adding a little bit of lemon zest to the cake batter and the pie filling. Blueberries love lemon!
In terms of baking, you can bake this cake in a 10″ spring form pan like I did, or you can use a 9 x 13″ baking dish. I used the spring form pan so that I could place the humble cake on a pretty cake stand; not that the cake needed anything to help it be pretty, but because I love cake stands!
You will note that my cherry pie filling looks quite a bit darker than most pie fillings. When I was making the Quick and Easy Cherry Pie Filling, I used a variety of cherries called Bing Cherries. They are darker in colour, and larger than Rainier Cherries, which are the lighter coloured cherries you see in the photographs. Rainier cherries are perfect eating cherries, but when it comes to baking, Bing cherries are preferred, because they tend to be larger and sweeter.
You can use any cherry that suits your personal tastes. And, if you’re not about to go ahead and make a batch of my Quick and Easy Cherry Pie Filling first, then you will need to purchase a large can of cherry pie filling from your grocery store. You’ll need a 19 ounce can to have just the right amount of cherries. It works out to roughly two cups of cherry pie filling.
Okay, Dear Reader, that’s it! Scroll down for the recipe. And, like always, I look forward to your comments. And, by all means, let me know if you try any other pie fillings other than cherry, apple, or blueberry!
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Cherry Cake with a Pecan Crumble Topping
Ingredients
- 2 cups cherry pie filling
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 2 large eggs
- 1/2 cup salted butter, melted
- 1/2 cup milk
- 1/2 cup pecans, chopped
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Prepare a 10" spring form pan by lining the bottom with parchment paper and greasing the sides. Set aside.
- Using a hand held mixer on the lowest speed possible, gently and lightly blend together the flour, sugar, melted butter, and baking powder.
- Remove about 1/2 cup of the mixture and set aside.
- Next, whisk the eggs with the milk and add to the flour mixture. Again, with the hand held mixer on the lowest speed, mix together until just formed - about 45 seconds. Clumps are to be expected.
- Pour the batter into your prepared spring form pan and smooth out the top.
- Pour the cherry pie filling over the cake batter and carefully spread to the edges of the pan.
- Add the chopped pecans to the 1/2 cup of flour mixture you had set aside earlier. Toss to combine and then sprinkle evenly over the cherry pie filling.
- Tap the pan onto your counter top or a cutting board a few times to help the batter settle into the pan and to eliminate bubbles.
- Bake for 45 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Remove the cake from the oven when done and allow the cake a full 20 minutes to cool before removing the spring form pan. Place the cake on a cake stand or a cooling rack to finish cooling.
Notes
Nutrition
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